The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Ali Farahnakian is living the American comedy dream. Born in Iran and raised in North Carolina, Ali moved to Chicago after college and fell right in with The Second City, improv Olympic and the teachings of Del Close and Charna Halpern. Saying “Yes, And” to life led him to becoming …
Paul F. Tompkins is Crying and Driving in his latest one-hour comedy special, but those are happy tears. After all, Paul has several projects ongoing as we met up once more in 2015 — from reuniting with his Mr. Show cohorts on a new Netflix series, W/ Bob & David, …
For two seasons over two different channels (FX and FXX), W. Kamau Bell joined elite company as host of his own late-night TV talk show, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. He’ll return to your cable TV on a regular basis in 2016 as host of United Shades of America …
Gad Elmaleh already is the most famous comedian in France, where he has millions of Twitter followers and is commonly referred to by people who don’t know him as the Jerry Seinfeld of France. And true to form, Gad not only is an observational comedian but also has voiced Seinfeld’s …
You’ve seen Aida Rodriguez on your NBC stations in the summer of 2014 competing as a finalist on the eighth season of Last Comic Standing, and for the past two years, she has hosted the Imagen Awards celebrating the positive portrayals of Latinos onscreen in TV, movies and webseries. The …
Seaton Smith came to your attention earlier in 2015 playing the character Motif on FOX’s sitcom, Mulaney. Since then, he has told jokes on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, and spoken his mind on Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. I was fortunate to know Smith as early …
Aparna Nancherla has performed stand-up on Conan, @midnight and Last Comic Standing, and previously worked as a writer and performer on FX/FXX’s Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. Nancherla recently started a new gig as a monologue writer for another late-night TV talk show, NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers. Nancherla told me …
Brooke Van Poppelen co-hosts Hack My Life on truTV along side Kevin Pereira, and has been seen telling jokes on @Midnight, John Oliver’s New York Stand Up Show, and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. She has provided her funny opinions to various VH1 and MTV series, including work …
Eugene Mirman is known for making his own path to success, all while maintaining a lovably absurd childlike view of the world, which serves him well as the voice of Gene on the Emmy-winning animated series, Bob’s Burgers, returning this September for a sixth season on FOX. You’ve seen Eugene previously on HBO’s …
Myq Kaplan and Zach Sherwin have been friends of mine for years, and together, they have a new podcast miniseries, Words of the Years, on the new podcast app, Howl. You probably saw Kaplan performing this summer as a contestant on America’s Got Talent. In 2010, Kaplan also made the final five …
